St. Petersburg Performance Artist Cuts off Earlobe in Act of Protest

Lesson Brief BBC Russian
Pyotr Pavlensky, a St. Petersburg-based performance artist well known for his acts of political protest involving the infliction of pain on his body, cut off his earlobe while sitting unclothed atop Moscow's Serbsky Psychiatric Hospital on Sunday. Pavlensky explained his motivation for the performance was to cry out against the forced psychiatric treatment of political dissidents. Police removed him from the rooftop and he is now receiving treatment in a Moscow hospital. 

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